In many industrial applications such as mines, etc., it is necessary or desirable to move appreciable quantities of granular material from one location to another. A conveyor, usually a belt conveyor, is employed to transport the granular material such as bauxite ore, for example. Most of such conveyors have an input chute for delivering the granular material to the conveyor and a discharge chute for discharging the granular material at the output end of the conveyor. In both cases, the chute often includes a wear liner attached to the inner side of the chute wall. The chute wall may be made of steel plates and the wear liner may be made from various materials such as ceramic, stainless steel, rubber, plastic, etc. Such conventional chute wear liners may provide abrasive and impact resistance to the chute but are not successful in preventing granular material solids from building up in the transfer chutes of the material handling system. The material solids build-up can be particularly severe during periods of higher material moisture content. Material solids build-up can result in a complete blockage of the material flow through the chute and/or damage to the conveyor belt if the material build-up is not prevented or regularly removed.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus to prevent solids from building up in a granular material handling system during a material delivery operation.